Moving abroad

[GPD]

Hi all. I have a SGO for our new phew and have had this in place for nearly 11 years (he is nearly 12). We want to move to New Zealand and we have permission from the birth father (birth mother passed away) and now we don’t know what the next steps are. East Sussex County County, who we have the SGO through, are unable to provide any guidance so wondered if anyone has been in a similar situation and could provide any guidance please? Thanks in advance.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear GPD

Welcome to the kinship cares discussion forum and thank you for your post.

My name is Suzie online adviser at Family Rights Group. I am sorry that it has taken a little while for you to receive a response to your post due to volume of work.

I see from your post that you are anxious to relocate to New Zealand but concerned about the process you would need to follow in order to do so. You have a special guardianship order for your nephew who is now 12 years old, and you have his father's agreement for the. move. Whilst you have a special guardianship order and can make decisions about your nephew and where he lives. As you wish to relocate abroad, you will need to make a formal application to the court to take your nephew out of the jurisdiction of England and Wales this, as well as changing a child’s surname require an application to the court where a person has a special guardianship order for permission to do so. You may be aware that you are able to take your nephew out of the country for up to three months but not permanently. When you make the application to the court, you will need to satisfy the court, that is show how your nephew's welfare will be looked after in New Zealand. You will have to provide the court with information about his education where he would live and how he would maintain contact with his father and other family members were appropriate.

I think you would find it helpful to contact Child Law advice on 0300 330 5480 as this is the organisation that advises on private law children matters and your application to the court to remove your nephew from the jurisdiction of England and Wales would be a private law application.

You may also wish to get advice from a family law solicitor about making your application to the court although, you can, represent yourself as a litigant in person in respect if your application should you want to do so.

I hope that this information is helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie